Work stations, in the form of desks, tables, modules, and the like, that have a monitor located under an aperture or window in their top working surface are known; see, for example, Schairbaum U.S. Pat. No. Re. 34,266 or Lechman et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,125,727.
Although such work station structures are coming into wide usage, one problem that is associated with their construction is the preparation of the monitor viewing aperture, particularly in a top surface that is comprised of wood or wood-containing materials, such as wood, plywood, laminated chip board, or the like. Each aperture needs to be accurately formed.
Conventionally, the usual aperture is not only provided with perimeter dimensions which closely accommodate an inset transparent panel comprised of glass or plastic, but also is provided along its edge wall with an inwardly extending lower ledge or flange which supports the panel so that the upper face thereof is flush with the top surface of the work station. Thus, precision is required when cutting out the aperture with a power saw, router, or the like. If the desired cutter path through the top surface is not maintained, the work station can be quickly ruined.
After an aperture is thus cut, its perimeter edge wall almost always has a color which does not match that of the top surface of the work station or which is undesirably eye-catching when a user is looking through an inset transparent panel to view a monitor screen positioned beneath. To eliminate such an undesirable edge wall coloration, it is conventional to paint or stain the edge wall before the transparent panel is inset into the aperture. Such a painting or staining must be done with care to achieve uniformity and to avoid showing upon adjacent top surface portions of the work station.
This conventional procedure for aperture formation, preparation, and plate insertion and positioning is not only time and labor consuming, but also is inevitably risky particularly because of the difficulty of achieving the exact aperture size. Not uncommonly, a filler must be packed into a gap existing between the rim edge of a transparent panel and an adjacent portion of the aperture edge wall in an effort to hide the gap and produce a smooth surface region between the panel and the top surface.
The art needs a new and improved aperture forming procedure and product apertured surface which overcomes such problems and disadvantages. The present invention achieves these objectives.